Green Tea Types

Green teas are one of the most popular types of tea in Asia. They
come in many forms such as Japanese powdered Matcha and Sencha teas to
full leaf teas including the famous Long Jing and Bi Luo Chun, as well
as many lesser known teas from Sichuan, Fujian, Yunnan, India, Kenya,
Georgia and many more besides.

Classic green teas offer a freshness that is difficult to beat, having
the opportunity to saviour a new spring tea is one of the most enjoyable
tea experiences you will have. Freshness is critical for most green
teas, ideally they should be enjoyed with in six months of harvest for
the best results, though correct storage can offer an enjoyable drink
for up to a year and a half.

The optimum water temperature is 80 or a maximum of 90 degrees
centigrade. It is recommended that you first boil the water and then let
it cool. Using water that is too hot will cause the tea leaves to be
spoiled and tea liquor will turn a dark yellow very quickly. This is
often the cause as to why so many people believe green tea is bitter.

It
is important to note that using water that is not hot enough, the tea
will not easily infuse and the leaves will float on the surface of the
water. One of the simplest and most convenient way to enjoy green tea is
to prepare in a tall glass. This way you can appreciate the beautiful
dancing of the tender tea leaves and buds. Our
tea brewing guide includes more ways to brew your favourite green tea.

Long Jing or Dragon's Well is the most well known types of green tea and originates from
Zhejiang,
in Eastern China. Long Jing green tea is famous for its green colour,
delicate aroma, mellow taste and beautiful shape. The appearance of Long
Jing tea is characterised by smooth, flat, straight leaves and its
jade-green colour. Usually, Long Jing tea and other kinds of tender
green tea can be drawn or infused only two or three times. When you
drink Long jing tea, it's best to enjoy the aroma first, then appreciate
the liquor colour, the moving of tea leaves in the glass and finally
taste the liquor.

Like many famous food and drink products, such as Champagne,
LongJing is a regional protected name. Being one of the most popular
green teas in the world, there are many LongJing teas which come from
neighbouring regions/counties and even far off provinces which carry the
LongJing name. Within ZheJiang province, LongJing is officially
produced in Mei Jia Wu village, Shi Feng and the more general XiHu 'West
Lake' region.

LongJing is a spring harvest tea. Within the picking season there
are a number of important periods based on the Chinese lunar calender.
One of the most famous is Ming Qian, pre-Qing Ming festival teas. Qing
Ming is known as the Chinese tomb sweeping festival. It is a time where
families re-unite to celebrate together and return to the graves of
their ancestors to pay respects and tidy the tombs.

The window for picking MingQian LongJing is very short, around 10
days before the tomb sweeping festival. Traditionally Long Jing Tea
picked after this period is called Yu Qian Longjing, or before the rain.
It is generally excepted that Yu Qiang LongJing is of a lower grade and
so fetches much lower prices on the competitive LongJing market.

TaiPing HouKui is an elegant China green tea with rolled leaves
from AnHui province. The long, flat tea leaves look beautiful as the
colour fades from a deep green colour at the leaf tip to a warm yellow
at the stalk.

The rolling process, creates addition flavour and depth that is often
not present in completely unprocessed leaves. This extra body in the
tea often makes TaiPing HouKui more appealing to those who find some
green teas too subtle or bland.

An added benefit of the rolled leaves is that TaiPing HouKui is ideal
for those that like to drink from a standard glass but that are not
keen on the leaves getting in the mouth, which is often a problem with
the fine, unprocessed leaves of green teas such as MaoFeng and LongJing.

The name TaiPing HouKui, originates from the tea's origins of TaiPing
village in AnHui. Hou is an abbreviation of HouGang, a small region
nearby. 'Kui' means chief or to imply the finest tips. Interestingly
TaiPing HouKui is often incorrectly translated as Monkey Chief - may be
this is a more exotic name for this rare and special Chinese green tea.

Known in China as Zhu Cha, this tea is almost exclusively
reserved for export. Popular through the middle east and north Africa as
the base for the sweet mint tea that can be found throughout the
region. Characterised by the tight pellets, gunpowder green tea produces
a much darker liquor than many traditional green leaf teas.

Other famous green teas are produced in a number of provinces in
China, the most famous of which are from Jiang Shu, An Hui & Si
Chuan. Examples of these are named Bi Luo Chun ('Spring Green round
(snail) tea'), Huang Shan Mao Feng (from the An Hui Yellow Mountain),
Liu An Gua Pian & Si Chuan Zhu Ye Qing (Green Bamboo Leaf tea).